160 ACQUIRED CHARACTERS SEC. 



of Lamarck's Philosophie Zoologique, explains them exclusively 

 in this way. He maintains that in consequence of greater 

 exercise the right arm is thicker and heavier, and all its 

 parts, bones, muscles, nerves, vessels are stronger than those 

 of the opposite side. And he adds, 1 that the Dutch naturalist 

 L. Harting has proved that the differences are already present 

 in the new-born child which has not yet made use of its 

 limbs, and that this gives rise, independently of example and 

 instruction, to the innate tendency to employ the right arm 

 in preference to the other. 



The skill of the right hand as compared with the left, in 

 fact, depends upon a number of congenital conditions, which 

 can only be explained by the inheritance of acquired peculi- 

 arities of muscular action, that is, ultimately, of the muscu- 

 lature and nerve supply. 



In this conclusion I am confirmed by another observation. 

 I noticed that the Arabs in Egypt in a great number of 

 actions make skilful use of the toes instead of the fingers. 

 This is particularly striking in the turners, who in turning 

 wood use the foot as well as the hand with much skill ; and 

 the same power was exhibited in the operations of weaving 

 by the Dinka negroes recently travelling with Nubians in 

 Germany. In the Egyptians the great toe plays an important 

 part. Beggars sometimes pick up pieces of money by grasp- 

 ing them between the great and the second toes instead of 

 grasping them with the hand. And the rapidity with which 

 this is usually done gives an idea of the dexterity possessed 

 by the toes. The skill, however, with which even young boys 

 use their toes in similar ways again leads us to infer some 

 congenital organic peculiarities. 



Moreover, it cannot be doubted that the deficiency in the 

 development of our toes and their want of dexterity are to be 

 ascribed to degeneration, and as both must be hereditary, our 



1 Op. cit. Biographische Einleitung, p. 35. 



